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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Excuses: I'm Too Young

Jeremiah 1:4–6 (KJV 1900)

4 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 6 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

Many
people offer to God every day the same excuse that Jeremiah did,
I’m just a child. It
is said that Jeremiah, at this time, was somewhere under the age
of 25. While
he may have felt himself too young to do anything for the Lord,
God already had a plan and purpose for His life. This
reminds me of Paul’s advice to young Timothy in 1
Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise
thy youth, but be an example of the believers, in word, in
conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, impurity. There
are many Christians who feel just like Jeremiah. They
think they are too young to serve the Lord. Church
is for the “old” people, and they say, when I get older,
then I’ll start coming faithfully and serving God. You
are never too young, or old, to serve God.

But
many Christians give this same excuse, even though by human
standards, they are not considered old. They
may not physically be a child, but they feel as if they are one,
spiritually. Many
Christians use their lack of Christian experience as an excuse to
not get involved. But
here’s the catch – you never gain the experience you feel you
need until you get involved. Many
Christians have not taught a Sunday School class because they did
not feel as if they knew enough of their Bible. Yet,
a great way to learn your Bible is to study a Sunday School lesson
all week before you teach it. This was how my church started my training after I received Jesus Christ as my Savior and surrendered my life to His will. I became the helper in the 4-5th grade boys Sunday School class. Every week, I studied their lessons and helped in the class when Sunday came around. Soon after, i was teaching about once a month. I learned more then because I had to study every week to be prepared for that class.

The
strange thing is - many who use their lack of Bible knowledge as an excuse never actually do anything about it. They
won’t read their Bible more, they won’t listen more
attentively in the service, and they won’t even volunteer as a
helper in a class to get the experience.

If
God has placed an opportunity in front of you, realize this – God
wouldn’t put you into that position unless He was going to equip
you with the tools needed to succeed. God
will not set you up to fail.

When
you site your lack of Christian knowledge and experience as a
reason why you cannot serve God, you are really telling God that
He can’t get it done. It
is one thing for us to know our weaknesses, but it is quit
something else for us to say that our weaknesses prevent God from
getting anything done.